Abstract
Transvascular drug delivery to the brain is difficult due to the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Thus, various methods for safely opening the BBB have been investigated, for which real-time imaging methods are desired both for the blood vessels and distribution of a drug. Photoacoustic (PA) imaging, which enables depth-resolved visualization of chromophores in tissue, would be useful for this purpose. In this study, we performed in vivo PA imaging of the blood vessels and distribution of a drug in the rat brain by using an originally developed compact PA imaging system with fiber-based illumination. As a test drug, Evans blue (EB) was injected to the tail vein, and a photomechanical wave was applied to the targeted brain tissue to increase the permeability of the blood vessel walls. For PA imaging of blood vessels and EB distribution, nanosecond pulses at 532 nm and 670 nm were used, respectively. We clearly visualized blood vessels with diameters larger than 50 μm and the distribution of EB in the brain, showing spatiotemporal characteristics of EB that was transvascularly delivered to the target tissue in the brain.
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